Deathlessness is not something you get your head around. The end of suffering, the cessation of suffering, is not something to comprehend. You discover it. It’s there.

"There’s something that’s deathless. Only it doesn’t lie in the “midst” of things. It’s a different dimension. It’s out of space and time. But it’s contacted right here. The Buddha doesn’t talk much about it. He says it’s something you realize by doing the practice.

We were talking today about trying to get our heads around the idea of what this deathlessness might be like. But it’s not something you get your head around. You try to get your head around suffering so you can comprehend it to the point where you can develop dispassion for the things that make you cling to it. As for the cause of suffering, you try to get your head around it enough to abandon it. But the end of suffering, the cessation of suffering, is not something to comprehend. You discover it. It’s there. And regardless of how wonderful your theories are about it or how accurate your ideas may be about it, there’s no way they can touch the actual reality of this potential, this dimension."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Responsible for Your Goodness"

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Wise about Pleasure (extract)

You treat the world knowing it will die, but the quality of your mind as something that doesn't die

If you were guaranteed awakening at the end of a hundred years of physical agony, it’d be a deal worth making. The happiness of awakening is *that* intense, *that* overwhelming, *that* total.